Culturebox: Questions for Catherine Hakim

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interrogation Questions for Catherine Hakim The author of Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom on why women should be using their sex appeal to get ahead. By Jessica Grose Updated Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011, at 7:02 AM ET In a recent New York Times article, an economics professor explained that if you're in the bottom one-seventh of Americans in the looks department, you earn as much as 15 percent less than someone in the top one-third of attractiveness. Catherine Hakim, a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and the author of the soon-to-be released book Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom, believes that there's no problem with such a wage disparity. "Discrimination is part of life itself," Hakim told me over the phone. "We discriminate between good restaurants and bad restaurants. We discriminate between people who are intelligent and stupid. We discriminate between people who are competent politicians and incompetent politicians. We discriminate between people who are attractive and unattractive." According to Hakim's deliberately provocative new book, "erotic capital"--which is a combination of six qualities, including beauty, sex appeal, social grace, liveliness, social presentation, and sexual competence--should not be marginalized. Hakim spoke with Slate about why women need to get a better return on their erotic capital, whether the so-called sex deficit is all it's cracked up to be, and why British glamour model and reality TV star Jordan should be an aspirational figure. To continue reading, click here. Jessica Grose is a senior editor at Slate and the managing editor of DoubleX. She is the co-author of Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages From Home. Follow her on Twitter here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Dick Cheney's Persuasive Case for Bring Back the Presidential Yacht If There's No Crew Onboard the Space Station To Take Care of It, Will It Fall Apart? People Always Say You Should Invest Like Warren Buffett. Here's Why You Can't.	Advertisement
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